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Monday, April 30, 2012

The new international trailer for Ridley Scott's Prometheus
premiered on UK TV this evening and just about caused the country to
lose its collective mind. Have a look for yourself, if you're willing to
risk a trailer that might be spoilerific and goes further than any yet in explaining all those cryptic "shared DNA with Alien" remarks.

See what we mean? This isn't just about poncing about on spaceships
and wearing suits with collars made of strip lighting. This is a film
very much in the Alien tradition of people being scared
out of their tiny minds and gibbering hopelessly while things go
horribly, gorily, destructively wrong.
The film, as you all know
by now, stars Noomi Rapace, Charlize Theron, Michael Fassbender, Logan
Marshall-Green, Guy Pearce, Rafe Spall, Sean Harris, Kate Dickie and
Idris Elba. Prometheus hits cinemas on June 1, which you can easily remember because it should be circled on every calendar in the land.

Action-Packed Expendables Still ArrivesArnie, Sly and Bruce break 'em off someSource: The Void

In the first Expendables, you'll recall there was
only a single scene shared by the holy trinity of Sylvester Stallone,
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis. It was entirely dialogue,
contained Arnie's whole cameo role, and was framed in such a way that
you might suspect the three were never actually even in the studio
together at the same time.
Today however, there's this...
That'll be Trent Mauser, Barney Rubble Ross and Mr Church, shooting something, in the same location, in a three-shot. And all is right with the world.The Expendables 2, as if you needed telling, is directed by Simon "Con Air"
West, and stars the aforementioned god-like action veterans, along with
Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Jean-Claude Van-Damme, Jet Li, Chuck
Norris, Terry Crews, Randy Couture, Liam Hemsworth, Scott Adkins and Nan
Yu. A collection of rather lovely posters arrived at the end of last week, and the film's out in the UK on August 17.

Daredevil Will Be Written AgainDavid James Kelly drafting new scriptSource: Deadline

Fox has been quietly developing a new Daredevil film for a couple of years now. 30 Days Of Night and Twilight: Eclipse director David Slade has been attached since last spring, and there have been screenplays by David Scarpa (The Day The Earth Stood Still) and Brad Caleb Kane (Brooklyn's Finest). Now though, there's word of yet another draft, this time by David James Kelly.
The
plan is still to adapt the Frank Miller saga Born Again, first
published in Daredevil issues 227-233, in 1986. The story sees Matt
Murdock outed as Daredevil by his former secretary Karen Page. She has,
shall we say, fallen on hard times since leaving the Nelson &
Murdock law firm, and sells the info for a shot of heroin. It eventually
reaches crime boss The Kingpin, who proceeds to creatively dismantle
Murdock's life and send supervillain Nuke into Murdock's stomping ground
of New York's Hell's Kitchen.
In the comic, The Avengers get
involved, but don't expect a movie crossover, since Captain America and
co. belong to a different studio.
There are several David James
Kellys listed on the IMDb, but the one we appear to be talking about has
but a single credit as an editor on Sunshine Cleaning
(which is really good by the way - no complaints there). Quite how he's
scored a big gig on a superhero property is unclear then. Maybe he's one
of those super-script-doctors that kick ass in total secret, but now
his identity has been blown.
We'll say it again: the Ben Affleck / Mark Steven Johnson Daredevil
is better than its reputation, especially in its Director's Cut form.
Affleck though, has been vocal about how he was stung by the negative
reaction to that film on its first release, so will not be back to fill
DD's red leather trews.
The only other name officially linked to the reboot at this point is producer Peter Chernin (Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes),
and Regency is the production company without fear. We'll bring you
more news as we get it. The ace Born Again is available as a paperback
collection published by Marvel, should you want to do some revision in
the meantime.

Word reached us last month that Chloe Moretz had landed the title role in the upcoming new version of Stephen King's Carrie. With Moretz currently out doing the rounds for Tim Burton's Dark Shadows,
the subject of the telekinetic teen has obviously been raised more than
once, and she's been happy to tease some details and generally enthuse.
Director Kimberly Peirce (Boys Don't Cry) is, Moretz told Coming Soon,
"a total genius and the right woman for the job." She also claims that
she's avoiding going anywhere near Brian De Palma's 1976 horror classic
starring Sissy Spacek, but that her version will be "darker and more
psychological; more Black Swan."
"We're really
looking into Carrie's mind," says Chloe, "and into the relationship
between Carrie and [her mother] Margaret." That relationship is, you'll
recall, a fractious one to say the least, with Carrie's mousy lack of
confidence stemming in no small part from her mother's fundamentalist
craziness. The Margaret role has recently been offered to Julianne Moore.
"Carrie's
completely different from me," says Chloe. "It's an out-of-body thing;
I'm becoming a totally different person for it. I'm letting go of all my
self-esteem issues and just going into it. You have to."
So you
might bemoan the need for a remake (and there actually seems to be a lot
of fan enthusiasm, for once), but you must admit, this sounds to be
coming together rather well. After the DTV sequel and the cheap TV
movie, it'll be good to have a quality Carrie again. Shooting starts in June.

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

With such films as The Proposition and The Road
under his belt, the prospect of a new film from director John Hillcoat
carries with it a palpable feeling of excitement. Given that his latest,
Lawless, populates a chewy, based-on-truth tale of
bootlegging brothers with a frankly stellar cast, our anticipation is at
an all time high. And the first trailer does not disappoint – take a
look below via Yahoo.

Regular Hillcoat collaborator Nick Cave has adapted the screenplay
from Matt Bondurant’s Prohibition-era novel, which follows the real-life
Bondurant brothers played by Tom Hardy, Shia LaBeouf and Jason Clarke.
This trio of charming but rough-edged siblings runs a bootlegging gang
in Franklin County, Virginia. Though life seems to be good, they’re soon
beset on all sides by local authorities wanting a slice of the action,
while things aren't helped by LaBeouf's character starting to work for a
wormy gangster (Gary Oldman). And that’s before Guy Pearce arrives as a
special agent charged with bringing down their little moonshine
operation.
Boasting Jessica Chastain, Mia Wasikowska, Noah Taylor, and Chronicle’s
Dane DeHaan in addition to the aforementioned cast, this has the ring
of something special. Hardy is reliable as always, but it’ll be
especially good to see Shia LaBeouf doing something other than screaming
“No!” a lot and running away from giant robots, crumbling skyscrapers,
or giant robots crumbling skyscrapers.Lawless
has snagged an In Competition slot at the Cannes Film Festival, which
runs this year between May 16 to 27, with an August 31 release planned
across the pond. Hopefully we won’t have to wait too long after that to
see it here.

It's just been unofficially announced that industry giants Pokerstars have completed the purchase of Full Tilt Poker for $750m. This includes a $330m settlement with the U.S Department of Justice and the full return of player balances. A forum thread appeared on TwoPlusTwo.com (the world's largest poker site) just hours ago entitled:

"Big News: PokerStars Purchases FTP(?)"

UPDATE: Rumoured sabotage. Laurent Tapie confirms deal is off for FTP buyout and insinuates external sabotage over DOJ negotiations. These are rumours with no credible sources at this time. Tom Victor at EGR reported GBT as saying "our efforts to obtain final DOJ approval to acquire the assets of Full Tilt Poker have ended without success". Unnamed inside sources confirm the rumours.

At first the thread was initially removed as unsubstantiated gossip, that was until respected forum moderator 'NoahSD' reported that various inside sources contacted him asking to 'undelete' the thread. Since then, various people have tweeted the news and no Stars representatives have come forward denying the takeover, which is what you would expect had the news been nonsense.

Power play by Stars. If true, the takeover is a powerful statement of intent from Pokerstars that they fully intend to cement their current market dominance outside of the U.S in anticipation of wide-spread American inter-state legislation later this year.

More to follow on this story as it breaks...

Scotty's take: I believe there is something to this rumor, more than something. Tweets from @igamingfrance have confirmed they have been communicating with the Bernard Tapie Group, who had been negotiating with the the U.S. Department of Justice to acquire Full Tilt Poker. IGaming France confirms the Tapie Group is no longer in the running, also reporting they will have a statement later in the day from a representative of the Tapie Group. Alexander Dryfus (CEO of Chili Poker) has also tweeted that PokerStars is buying Full Tilt Poker for a cool $750 million. Part of the deal includes settlement with the DOJ and full balances of current players, estimated at $330 million.

Stay tuned to SCOTTYS BLOG as updates unfold...

ADD 3:50PM : PokerStars has released the following statement, "We've had a lot of enquiries and there's lots of speculation on the forums, so I wanted to address the PokerStars chatter. As you know, PokerStars is in settlement discussions with the U.S. Department of Justice. As such settlement discussions are always confidential, we are unable to comment on rumors. As soon as we have information to share publicly we will do so."

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Jessica Chastain Circles Iron Man 3She's up to play a sexy scientistSource: Deadline

With shooting set to launch next month under the watchful eye of co-writer-director Shane Black, Iron Man 3 is locking in more cast members. Ben Kingsley and Guy Pearce are already either aboard or close to a deal, but now the film looks set to get even more thespian power in the form of Jessica Chastain.
The actress – who has appeared in all the films last year, including The Tree Of Life, The Debt and The Help
(for which she was nominated for an Oscar) – has, according to
Deadline, been linked to a role in the film for some time now. There
have been some scheduling issues given how busy she is, but with a
little diary shuffling, she’s now clear to take part if she chooses.
Thanks
to Marvel’s usual secrecy surrounding its heroes, there are few details
about what she’ll be playing, but it’s said to be a sexy scientist who
is Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr)’s intellectual equal. Will she be a
love rival for Gwyneth Paltrow's Pepper Potts? Only time will tell.Iron Man 3 will be out on May 3, 2013. But Stark will be back a little earlier than that, in some movie about Avengers Assembling. You might have heard of it…

After kicking much ass in Steven Soderbergh’s Haywire,
Gina Carano has become a hot property in Hollywood. She’s already got a
couple of films in development, but she could be taking her action star
status to the next level, as Justin Lin and the Fast & Furious production team are looking to secure her services.
Lin is once more in the director’s chair, with Chris Morgan on script duty. And as for that script (never really the most important part of any Fast film, but still) – that’s still being kept a secret.
Paul Walker and Vin Diesel will return as franchise regulars Brian O’Connor, with Fast Five’s
MVP Dwayne Johnson set to be back as Agent Luke Hobbs. Expect plenty of
mano-a-mano smack downs, with Carano as part of Hobbs’ team on the hunt
for the lads.
The current plan is for Carano to put Diesel and co
into her schedule before reporting to any other set, including John
Stockwell’s thriller In The Blood.Fast Six
(or whatever it ends up being called) will screech into cinemas on May
24, 2013 and is due to shoot this summer - in, among other places, the
UK.

Sean Penn Joining Walter Mitty?He's after a small roleSource: Deadline

If you thought that Al Pacino cropping up as a Sandler-lady-loving version of himself in Jack And Jill
was odd casting, the bar may now be raised. According to Deadline, Sean
Penn – not known for appearing in big studio comedies – is now negotiating to play a role in The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty.
Ben
Stiller has finally wrangled the comedy out of development hell, where
it has been stuck for years. Working from a script by Steve Conrad,
Stiller will direct and star in the tale of a timid magazine photo
editor who finds his only satisfaction living through fanciful dreams,
including those about co-worker Kristen Wiig.
But then a negative
goes missing and Mitty must go out on a hunt to find it, which leads
him on an actual adventure, and changes his life.
Penn’s role is being kept quiet, but is apparently “small” yet “pivotal.” Perhaps he’s the person in the negative?
Assuming
he seals a deal, he’ll join a cast that already includes Stiller, Wiig,
Adam Scott, Patton Oswalt, Shirley MacLaine and Josh Charles. Penn is
currently on screen in Paolo Sorrentino’s This Must Be The Place, and will next be seen in Gangster Squad, which is still awaiting a releas date.

Now that The Hunger Games
has lived up to its potential, Lionsgate is kicking off the search to
find another book-based franchise that offers a similarly rich vein of
source material. The company thinks it might have a possibility in Patrick Ness’ young-adult focused Chaos Walking series, and has picked an interesting person to adapt it: Charlie Kaufman.
Ness’
series – which, like all good YA series these days, comprises three
titles, The Knife Of Never Letting Go, The Ask And The Answer and
Monsters Of Men – finds Earth ruined in a dystopian future.
Humanity,
though, has colonized a distant, Earth-like planet and is trying to
make a go of it there when an infection called the Noise strikes, which
makes all thoughts audible. Chaos, somewhat naturally follows, and soon a
corrupt autocrat takes the chance to seize control of the settlements
in order to launch a strike on the native alien race. A young lad named
Todd Hewitt (perhaps some distant descendant of Empire’s own Chris!)
must stop the oncoming destruction.
Though Adaptation / Synecdoche, New York's
Kaufman might not be the first name studios would leap to when looking
to make a blockbuster, he’s certainly an intriguing choice with the
potential to produce something very different. And he’s not completely
outside of the system, having contributed uncredited script work to
several movies including Kung Fu Panda 2.
Kaufman will be getting to work on Chaos while at the same time setting things in motion for his latest directing job, Frank Or Francis, which sees Steve Carell’s film director sparring with Jack Black’s blogger.

It
can’t be much fun to be Mel Gibson at the moment. He’s still deeply
embroiled in a war of words and embarrassing audiotapes, and has seen
any sign of a career resurgence falter along with it. But someone still
wants to work with him, as Robert Rodriguez has reached out to bring him aboard Machete Kills.
The
film finds Danny Trejo back as the toughest Federale around, dispatched
by the US government to track down an arms dealer in Mexico before the
villain can launch a destructive rocket.
Rodriguez is in the
process of rounding up as much of the surviving Machete cast as he can,
and he has talked before about recruiting both Gibson and Michelle
Williams, amongst others.
While he co-directed the original with
Ethan Maniquis, Rodriguez apparently likes his script for the new movie
so much that he wants to do as much of it as he can alone. “Currently I
am directing it,” Rodriguez tells
the Hollywood Reporter. “But we’re checking to see if there’s going to
be the need for another director if I have to go off and do Sin City 2. I wasn’t sure what the timing on Sin City was or if I would have to step off to do Sin City at a certain point, depending on when Machete went. But Machete looks like it’s going to go pretty quickly so it’s possible that I will direct the whole thing.”
Gibson’s latest movie – How I Spent My Summer Vacation – is out here on May 11, but is going straight to DVD in the US.

Lawrence Could Be Jeanette WallsIn an adaptation of her memoirSource: Deadline

Not
every memoir deserves to be turned into a film. But former gossip
columnist Jeanette Walls certainly seems to have the goods, given her
deeply dysfunctional childhood and ability to turn a phrase. Now Lionsgate has snapped up the rights to her book, The Glass Castle, and is developing it for The Hunger Games’ Jennifer Lawrence.The Glass Castle
was published in 2005 and sat on the New York Times bestseller list for
more than 250 weeks. But while the tome does delve into Walls' career,
it nabbed attention more for the tales of her youth.
One of four
children raised by parents Rex and Rose Mary, Walls endured poverty
despite her mother owning land in Texas worth millions. Though creative
and intelligent, Rose Mary was also eccentric and immature, hardly the
best qualities for raising children. And Rex hit the bottle hard, all
the while dreaming of getting rich and giving his family a proper life.
Paramount
and Brad Pitt’s Plan B company snapped up the rights to the book when
it was first in the shops, but they’ve since lapsed and now Lionsgate
has them. Fright Night’s Marti Noxon is on board to write the screenplay, which seems like a good match of voice and source material to us.
Lawrence has been keeping busy in between her trips to Panem: she’ll appear in horror pic House At The End Of The Street and David O Russell’s The Silver Linings Playbook this year, and is at work on Susanne Bier’s Serena.

Last
time Renny Harlin headed for snow-capped mountains, it was to shoot
people and blow shit up in the thick-headed Stallone classic Cliffhanger.
He'll be taking another climbing trip in the near future, but this time
it sounds like it won't be quite so heavy on the bombast, dealing instead with the peculiar mystery of the Dyatlov Pass incident.
It
all took place in 1959, when nine hikers on a skiing trip in the
Russian Ural mountains were killed in extremely odd circumstances. There
were no survivors to explain why, in temperatures around −30°C, the
group apparently tore open their tent from the inside, and headed out
into the snow in their bare feet.
The bodies, when found, showed
no signs of struggle, but significant internal injuries consistent with
enormous pressure. One corpse was missing its tongue, and some were
found to be highly radioactive. The inquest could only conclude that the
nine had been victims of "a compelling unknown force." The pass is now
named after the expedition's leader, Igor Dyatlov.
Harlin's film
involves five ambitious American students given a grant to investigate
the incident and retrace the victims' journey. This proves to be a
mistake, since they're soon bothered by strange and terrifying
phenomena, suggesting that the forces behind the original mystery have
been waiting fifty-odd years for a repeat performance.
Roughly
speaking, Renny Harlin's directing career has generally alternated
between action and horror. There's the aforementioned Cliffhanger, the criminally underrated The Long Kiss Goodnight, last year's excellent Five Days Of War, and of course, Die Hard 2: Die Harder. But before Bruce Willis there was Freddy Krueger (Harlin directed the fourth Nightmare On Elm Street), and he's since brought us Mindhunters, The Covenant, and The Exorcist: The Beginning. This trip to the Urals then, is not unprecedented, and won't necessarily involve anything being exploded.
Last
night there was a fun video online - intended for potential investors -
showing Harlin being "interrogated" about the film and its missing
cast. Sadly, its since been taken down at the behest of production
company Aldamisa. In the absence of that though, and of an actual title,
there's still a poster (see below). Shooting is apparently already
underway.

He can currently be seen scaring things up for Joss Whedon’s Cabin In The Woods, but Richard Jenkins plans to be a little nicer to the human race for his next trick. He’s signed on to star as a reclusive track coach in One Square Mile.
The
film finds Cameron Bright as a young man from the wrong side of the
tracks who fears his life may forever be mired in poverty. But a spark
of hope comes in the shape of his running talent, and he gets some
encouragement and training when he somehow persuades a grouchy trainer
(Jenkins) to help him out. Sounds a bit like Finding Forrester meets Chariots Of Fire, which we guess could be a good thing - especially with Jenkins aboard.
Charles-Olivier
Michaud is the director in charge of this one, which has been written
by Josh Campbell and Jeff Van Wie. The starting pistol for production
should fire in August.
“We felt the writers always had Richard in
mind when we were developing the script, and we couldn’t be happier now
that he is on board,” producer Howard Burd tells the Hollywood Reporter.
“Having Cameron Bright play opposite Richard is a strong acting
combination that will produce a compelling and inspirational film.”
Jenkins has roles in the upcoming Darling Companion as well as Killing Them Softly, A.C.O.D., The Company You Keep and One Shot. Frankly, he makes other actors look lazy by comparison…

If
you had to pick someone to embody Elizabeth Taylor, a woman known for
grace, style, and dealing with a turbulent personal life, we’re not sure
Lindsay Lohan would exactly jump to the top of the list. Except perhaps
on that last criterion. But she’s the choice for a new us TV movie biopic about Taylor’s time with Richard Burton, called Liz & Dick.
Despite
the puntastic title, the Lifetime channel across the pond really is
going ahead with the project, which will be based on the true, deep love
story between the two screen legends. After meeting on the set of Cleopatra,
they ditched their respective spouses and began a stormy affair that
culminated in marriage. And then divorce. And then re-marriage, and one
final re-divorce.
In a press release picked up by Deadline, Lohan
enthused: “I have always admired and had enormous respect for Elizabeth
Taylor. She was not only an incredible actress but an amazing woman as
well. I am very honoured to have been asked to play this role.”
Lohan
has been linked to the role for a while now, which will represent the
latest chance for her to resurrect her career from the ashes of bad
behaviour, court dates, jail time and Razzie-worthy performances.
There’s no indication yet who will play Burton, but shooting kicks off
in June.

We haven't seen much in the way of animated movies from The Weinstein Company, bar the Hoodwinked films and the company picking up Luc Besson's Arthur movies for distribution. But the Weinsteins have now announced three new CGI cartoon projects for release in 2013, alongside the already-revealed Escape From Planet Earth.Escape
is first out of the gate next February, and as previously reported,
tells the story of alien astronaut Scorch Supernova, tricked into coming
to Earth after he picks up a fake SOS from dastardly military types.
Brendan Fraser is the voice of Scorch, with further vocal stylings
provided by Sarah Jessica Parker, Jessica Alba, James Gandolfini, and
Rob Corddry.
After that, in August, we'll get Leo The Lion, about the titular jungle predator who decides to turn veggie and has to deal with the scorn of the rest of his pride.
Then things get seasonal, with The Trick Or Treaters set for Hallowe'en, and Santapprentice for Christmas. The Trick Or Treaters involves thieves terrorsing the countryside until their hearts are melted by an orphan girl. And Santapprentice, which sounds a bit like a mash-up of Terry Pratchett's Mort and Hogfather (without the grim reaping, and with a dash of Arthur Christmas), revolves around another orphan, chosen to replace Santa when he retires.
Way back in the summer of 2007, The Weinstein Company announced a new deal between itself, The Gotham Group (The Spiderwick Chronicles)
and the Chungcheongnam-do Government of South Korea, to develop a new
slate of animated movies. These would appear to be the result. Hey,
animation takes ages.
"Following the continued
achievements of some of the industry's most successful animated
filmmakers, we are producing animation with comedic stories that the
entire family can enjoy," says Harvey Weinstein. "We will be utilising
all of our relationships with top talent across the board to deliver the
appropriate comedic tone and entertainment."
The Company is also developing something called Cricket In Times Square, which is being written by The Lion King's Evan Spiliotopoulos. "A-list voice talent" will be announced for the other three new films at some point in the future.

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